Trans Iowa v14: News You Could Use

Thinking about Spring made me realize that it has been a bit since I have posted any missives concerning this event. So, it is high time to post up some basic news you could use- that is if you are a rider in T.I.v14. 

Which leads me to the following statement I post ad infinitum every year: If- for any reason- you cannot be at T.I.v14, PLEASE tell me ASAP!! 

The amount of extra work I did last year for about 20 people that decided not to show up within 10 days of T.I.v13 was.......aggravating. That's being nice about it. Nuff said there......

Suffice it to say that it is of the utmost importance that any rider who is planning on not coming decide that long before two weeks to go before Trans Iowa. Please. It's a big deal to me.

Okay, now moving on from that, I wanted to make one more change perfectly clear: Cue Sheets To Check Point #1 Will Not Be Handed Out At The Pre-Race Meeting Friday Night- BUT YOU STILL ARE REQUIRED TO ATTEND! 

There will be waivers to sign, pre-race information to digest, and another important announcement concerning T.I.v14 that won't be made until the end of the meeting. If you are not there, trust me- you will not ride in Trans Iowa v14.  The meeting starts at 7:00pm, but waivers must be signed before 6:30pm. Doors open at 4:00pm to the Grinnell Steakhouse where we will be there diligently waiting for you, ready to go. It is the least that you can do to show up before then, I will not allow late sign ons, so if you are cutting it close, don't even bother coming. I won't allow you to sign in even if you are 30 seconds too late. It's 2018 folks. You can figure out how to get there early. We haven't had any issues in 13 years with this rule, so let's not start now.

Cues will be handed out at the start line. Image of the T.I.v13 start by Matt Gersib

This means that we will be handing out cues at the start line for T.I.v14. This also means you cannot dilly-dally around and show up 3 minutes to 4:00am. If you do, you won't get cues and you won't get them at CP#1 either. We are going to hand out cues and check you off at 3:40am and if you are not there, you will get a DNS next to your name and that's that.

I'm putting this very important info out now so you will have plenty of time to prepare yourself to be on the start line by 3:30 am. There will be no excuses for being tardy, because you people are smart enough to get this done and if you fail me in this, then maybe you shouldn't be riding in Trans Iowa. You may say, "But what if....." (fill in the blank) I will say, "Tough cookies." I ain't playin' that game with anyone for this deal. You know the drill- so just plan on being successful. That's what I am going to do.

Now, here are your tentative cut off times. This could be tweaked depending upon roads, future re-routes that may be necessary after recon this Spring, or other unforeseen events, but for now this is my plan. It's what I intend on sticking to. Here you go.....

• Cut Off for Checkpoint #1: 8:15 am Saturday
• Cut Off for Checkpoint #2: 11:00pm Saturday
• Cut Off for Trans Iowa v14: 2:00pm Sunday

You may notice that these times are exactly the same as for T.I.v13. You are correct in that. The distances to checkpoints are similar to last year's checkpoints. That's why. Another thing to note about the course: THERE ARE NO SUPPLY CHANCES AT ANY OF THE CHECKPOINTS! Next, there are a total of FOUR convenience stores on the ENTIRE ROUTE. The last one is a 24 hour store and is about 100 miles from the finish. Plan accordingly.

You can figure on having to go about a 100 miles to start out with before you see a convenience store. I highly suggest that you avail yourselves of the opportunity at each convenience store you see. The route will go right past all four stores, so I am not marking the cue sheets with convenience store locations. It will be up to each rider to be alert and look for their chance to resupply. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOU!! 

That's it for this edition of T.I.v14 news and updates. Look for further updates to come soon.....